Quote:
Originally Posted by dirk digler
You make some valid points Saul but P&L was built along with the Sprint Center because the thought was they were guaranteed a NHL or NBA team. Neither has happened and probably won't for the foreseeable future.
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True. That is yet another black eye for our city planning. I don't get too caught up in that one for the reason Reaper mentioned earlier. The Sprint Center is more than pulling it's own weight even without a team. That said, it's not what the taxpayers were promised nor wanted.
It's a waste that all this money was dumped into these grandiose ventures, yet they do so little to complement one another.
The greater KC area has some of the best facilities in the country, but they are all over the place.
You have the renovated stadiums out at Raytown Road and the Blue Ridge Cutoff. You have the Sprint Center downtown, you have Livestrong and Community America in Wyandotte, you have the soccer complex in Overland Park, and you have the Hockey arena in Independence.
I look at what has been done on the west side of State Line, and I see a vision. I look east, and I'm not sure what I see.
It isn't that difficult to envision a scenario in which Kansas City would have the Sprint center where it currently sits, Kaufman Stadium where the new performing arts center is, Livestrong and the soccer complex where Bannister Mall was, the Independence Events Center where it currently sits, a renovated Arrowhead where it currently sits, and the NASCAR track right next to it along with the casinos, restaurants, shopping, etc. that went along with it.
Every one of those things were proposed, and every one of them got done. It's just that a lot of them got done at other locations to the detriment of Jackson County.
I'm not pissed about it. What's done is done, but I'm not going to bury my head in the sand and ignore it so that when the next great opportunity knocks we shit the bed again because we refuse to acknowledge past mistakes and learn from them.